Pop Education Vs Pop Culture

Pop culture has been seen in the past to be a main ingredient in making our country’s I.Q. drop, or well, that the overall population is going to become dumber because of its rise. However, Malcolm Gladwell has felt differently, and decided to produce an article on how pop culture has effected the smarts of our country. In Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Brain Candy”, Gladwell effectively uses rhetorical appeals to prove his argument.

Pop culture, what does this term even mean? It seems to be a word that contains subjects of media, social structure, and society as a whole. According to the dictionary, pop culture is defined as “cultural activities or commercial products reflecting, suited to, or aimed at the tastes of the general masses of people”. In the society we live in today, we are constantly surrounded by pop culture, either that is with television, magazines, different sources of social media and/or exposure to others. Due to pop culture being such a dominant contribution into our world today, it has effected many parts of society. The domination of social media has created idealistic views that are stressed upon female adolescents in particular. Upon media’s influence, traditional tactics and work have been modified in order to keep up with our technology oriented society. This alters the schools and education systems. Through the use of television, social media and other means of pop culture, serious study is necessary due to the negative effects it has on the younger generation and the effects it has for their futures.

Learning about pop culture truly frightened me when I saw the book we were utilizing at the beginning of the semester. Having been without television for more than 10 years now, I suspected I wouldn’t know much. Being a single parent amid this time gave me an opportunity to see this present era progress through the technological advances of our time, and interestingly, my age placed me in pop culture arena’s that the more youthful era doesn’t even think about. Our book, “Signs of Life in the USA” was splendid at addressing such a variety of products, movies, television, spaces, semiotic multiculturalism, alongside the gender and sexual societal rational to name a few. The transition back to school after 40+ years has given me some shock in the amount of openness and evaluation of actually any subject, religion to politics. Since these are places I refrain to go into conversation with others on the planet, to have my opportunity of opinions gives me a protective feeling with the

Graff starts out his work, hooking the audience, by saying what multiple students think about their school, that schools are making mistakes teaching us the things they do. Graff essentially calls out schools for the pickle that they have put their students in. Graff describes some curriculum, using Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution and Nuclear fission as examples of the mind-numbing topics that schools teach about. Graff then brings up topics, such as Cars, Dating, Fashion, Sports, TV, and Video Games, that many kids today enjoy talking about and discussing with one another. Graff emphasizes that despite the lack of “connection… established between any text or subject and the educational depth and weight of the discussion it can generate,” schools continue to assume that there is a connection (par. 3).

In ours’, it’s everything from MTV hits, to Breaking Bad to Miley Cyrus. But historically, pop culture derived from the lower classes and the “low” culture, the exiled counterpart to “high” culture. High culture was considered to compose of art, literature, and classical music created by and for the most prestige. Over time “pop culture” slowly began to replace the phrase “ low culture,” pop culture or low culture was defined by what it wasn’t; elegant, refined, high culture, than rather by what it was. Mass culture. The masses looked for entertainment and distraction, soon enough it was assumed for pop culture to simply just amuse. However, pop culture can never be dismissed as being “just” entertainment or for “only” amusement.

Our second essay is a response to the readings from the Chapter “Is Pop Culture Actually Good For You?” and should include specific references to the text when appropriate. You may also develop the essays with examples from your own lives or other courses you may have taken that covered similar themes. In other words, personal experience is o.k. to use as evidence in your essay, but keep in mind that this essay is primarily a response to a text. You must use at least one of the texts as the “they say” to your “I say.”

The idea of pop culture has many different opinions surrounding it. Some people believe that it’s a God sent to us, others think it's the devil. Chris Hedges and Melissa Ames both have opposing opinions on this topic. Hedges, in “American Psychosis,” discusses that pop culture is bad because we focus too much on superficial topics and not enough on the real problems in our world. Whereas, Ames, in “Engaging ‘Apolitical’ Adolescents: Analyzing the Popularity and Educational Potential of Dystopian Literature Post-9/11,” suggests that pop culture is a unique tool that you can use to understand politics and our world’s problems. Both authors struggle to convince their peers to believe their ideology and they both have unique ways of doing so. By

In conclusion, there is both reluctance and openness towards whether pop culture should be studied at an academic level. Pop culture has a value in sociology, the interests of students and a lack of resistance from students and professors. There are more positive resources that support pop culture as an academic study than there are ones of reluctance. From the evidence stated in above paragraphs, it is evident that there is much support for a new form of

We live in a time where technology is constantly advancing, and the media is in every aspect of the typical American’s life. Our parents lived during a time without cell phones or televisions in their homes, their connection to the media was through books, magazines, newspapers, and the radio. As a twenty year old in 2016, I've always had a television, computer, and cell phone in my home, so my connection to the media was though what was on television, movies, video games, music, and many different things on the internet. Growing up I spent a lot of time playing outside and technology wasn’t something that had to be limited because it wasn’t a problem until I was a teenager. Now days it’s rare to come across a child who doesn’t have their own iPad, old smartphone, or a cell phone that is in service. Have you ever thought about how the media influences you, what you watch on television, the music you listen to, your views on certain subjects, when you have a question about something you look it up on the internet; then think about why you lean more

We have all seen pop culture references to little people from books that later lead to featured movies, like Gulliver's Travels or the Lord of the Rings. Most will write this off figments of fantasy or sci-fi writer imaginations. But, what if I told you there is evidence that civilizations of very small humans -- many smaller than modern dwarfs and midgets -- did indeed exist all over the planet, in our ancient past?

Let's take rap. Some kids who like rap talk like rappers, dress like rappers, eat like rappers, and treat women like rappers treat women. Is it because they're influenced by what they see on TV or hear on their favourite rap artist's album?” Glen Chiacchieri makes it clear that there are many aspects of culture that are dependent on Music, and that music has been, and that the way people lived there lives are affected by music and popular culture.

What pops into your mind first when you think of popular culture in today’s day and age? The latest dirt on celebrities or the latest iPhone release? The latest controversial issue or the latest iTunes hit? Regardless, pop culture encompasses all four of these concepts and many more, which consume the world we live in each and every day. Think about education. At first thought, your mind may not make the connection between the newest Taylor Swift song and the highest ACT score, but the linkage between the two becomes undeniable when you dive deeper. Ponder this: each day millions of kids walk into school buildings across the United States, each of them glued to a little slice of pop culture, a.k.a. their phone. And each day these millions

Like previous generations today's youth are greatly influenced by what they see and hear. Outside of parents or legal guardians, the big screen, television, music, and peers have the greatest influence over young people today. What is being communicated to our youth falls short on doses of old-fashioned morals and values.

When we understand the importance of popular education we are able to realize that this form of education helps to raise critical consciousness and freedom by co-learning in order to achieve social transformation. Taking a class on popular education has allowed for me to recognize that there are different ways and practices in which we can learn that move away from the dominant educational system to better reflect our social identities. After developing the knowledge and skills on what popular education is and how we do popular education, my classmates and myself were able to put these skills into practice and collaborate on a workshop. Once we decided on an issue that we wanted to focus our workshop on such as food literacy, we worked together to design and facilitate this workshop for the class in order to gain an opportunity on the processes of popular education by also experiencing the challenges as well. For the purpose of this paper, I will be reflecting on putting popular education into practice by using my workshop as a framework to understand both the learning processes as well as the challenges that I faced. In addition, I will also reflect on the changes I would make moving forward in order to continue to develop my popular education skills in the future. Throughout this reflection I will focus on aspects such as the banking model, equity, participation, story telling, community and so forth. The course readings will also be applied In order to further explore

Throughout the world, popular culture has made an impact, especially on especially to people living throughout the world. The impact of popular culture has several benefits on both individuals and society. Several of the benefits that popular culture has on society are entertaining, informing, and interactions.